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He’s right. Keeping the sad excuse of a man alive would have been the better option, but then I remember the dreadful sight in that car when I opened the door.
“He was about to rape her.”
Dad studies my forlorn expression, and slowly, the anger leaves his face, softening his temper for a moment as realization dawns on him. “Is this the girl you’ve been exhausting resources trying to find for the past ten months?”
Of course, he knows about her and what I have done to look for her. Like I said, Dad knows everything.
“Yes.”
“What do we know about this girl?”
“Her name is Rose Bennett. She woke up not long before Raphael came to collect me.”
Dad ignores my passive-aggressive stab and digs deeper. “What else?”
“She has a six-week-old son named Liam. I don’t know much about him except...” I pause, unsure if I should share this bit or not. Except a small, little damaged part of my soul pokes its stupid head up and forces the words from my mouth. “Except she claims he’s my son.”
Raphael tenses up beside me, surprise ebbing off him in waves since I didn’t share this detail with him on the ride over. Uncle Leo releases a string of curses under his breath. The only one who doesn’t react is Dad. He stares at me like I haven’t just dropped a giant bombshell. After a long moment, he stands and strides over to the bar, pouring himself a finger of scotch. He swallows it and then pours another and another.
“That’s impossible.” Uncle Leo fills the silence, voicing the thoughts of everyone in the room and my exact words to Rose earlier.
My eyes stay trained on Dad, but I direct my words to my uncle. “That’s what I told her, but she swears it’s true.”
“And you believe her?” Uncle Leo asks incredulously. “She’s practically a stranger.”
“Yes,” I say without hesitation, that tormented part of my soul taking control of my mouth once again before I can speak rationally.
Uncle Leo scoffs at me like he sees me as some naive child. I hated when he did that as a kid and hated it even more as an adult. “Have you considered that she might be trying to trick you into thinking the kid is yours? That she sees how rich you are and is just after money?”
“That’s what a paternity test is for,” Raphael points out, earning a stern look from our uncle.
“But the doctor—” Uncle Leo tries.
“Enough.” Dad’s deep tone fills the office space, silencing the rest of us. He swallows two more glasses before returning to his chair. Leaning forward on his elbows, he rests his chin on top of his clasped hands and closes his eyes.
I watch him closely, desperately wanting to know his thoughts. Dad raised me and my siblings to be fair, to gather all the facts first, and to always listen with an open mind. It made him a well-respected and feared leader in a world that rarely acknowledges either trait. I just hope he’s exercising those same virtues right now.
Taking a deep breath, Dad opens his eyes and exhales hard, like he’s just made a heavy decision. “You’ll need to be retested, Michael. And at a different facility this time. If, by some miracle, you’re not sterile, we’ll move forward with a paternity test.”
Hearing Dad consider that the impossible might actually be possible gives that stupid little part of my soul hope. Hope I know will only be squished when the inevitable is proven true.
“I’ll go today.”
19
Rose
I wasn’t lying to Michael when I told him I was tired. Between the relaxing shower and the numbing effect of the pain meds, I’m fast asleep before long.
Liam fills my dreams, and I wake up in tears. The longing to embrace my son is so intense that I feel like I’m suffocating. He must be so scared and confused right now. I’ve been gone for at least a week now, and a lot can happen in that time. I trust Anette will watch him, but for how long? Will Evelyn risk traveling to the city to retrieve Liam? We never discussed the possibility because every scenario included him being with me if I had to run. But surely Dad’s no longer having her watched now that he’s essentially wiped his hands clean of me.
And then a terrifying thought suddenly seizes me. What if Dad returned to the town to find and take my son? What if he sold him into the same human trafficking ring he did to me?
I have to get to Liam. Somehow.
Bringing him here to Miami is dangerous, but leaving him there in Italy or with Evelyn is just as risky. Every single option in front of me sucks, and at this point, it’s a matter of which one sucks the least.
With a goal in mind, I get out of bed and take care of business before I dare to leave the bedroom. I poke my head out the doorway and wait and listen. The low sound of a television playing floats down the hallway. Did Michael come home, and he just didn’t want to wake me up? That’s considerate of him, but now I’m awake and ready to revisit our conversation from earlier and then go collect my son.
